2014 Year In Review: San Francisco Giants
By Matt Furtado/KHTK Sports 1140
Another Even Year:
2010…2012…2014.
What more needs to be said?
The San Francisco Giants have put together one of the most historic runs by an organization over the past five years.
How have they done it?
They have kept a core group of players over the years who have great chemistry, and are not phased by the pressures of the postseason.
They have leaders all over the field. Players like Buster Posey and Madison Bumgarner not only play at an All-Star level, but they show great leadership on and off the field.
There's more to winning a World Series then just having tremendous talent, and the Giants have exemplified that.
At the beginning of the 2014 season, the Giants were not looked at as a favorite to make it to the postseason.
The Los Angeles Dodgers were said to be on the verge on something huge with young stars such as Yasiel Puig and Clayton Kershaw.
The Giants came out hot to start the season. Through the first few months of baseball, the Giants held the best record in baseball.
It was definitely unexpected. The free agent signing of Michael Morse was paying off like no one saw coming.
The right-handed slugger was belting home runs and driving in runs like an MVP candidate.
The Giants pushed moved all the way to 10 games ahead of the Dodgers in the standings.
But then the injury bug hit the Giants.
Players like Angel Pagan, Brandon Belt and Matt Cain dealt with injuries for much of the season; Cain's injury put him out for the season.
The lead slowly dwindled down from there and the Giants found themselves in a tight race for the division with the rival Dodgers.
A key pickup of Jake Peavy and the promotion of rookie Joe Panik to the big league club helped keep the Giants in the race for the second half of the season.
By the end of the season, the Dodgers pulled away and won the division by six games.
But as Giants' fans are well aware, it doesn't matter how you get into the playoffs, once you're in, anything can happen.
So the Giants snuck into the playoffs and faced off against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
If Bumgarner wasn't a star before the 2014 postseason, he most certainly is now.
He pitched an absolute gem against the Pirates. A complete game shut-out with 10 strikeouts and only four hits allowed.
And his legacy only grew from there. He went 4-1 with a 1.18 ERA in the postseason and even closed out game seven to win the World Series.
He didn't do it alone though, the Giants bullpen, minus Hunter Stickland who gave up six homeruns in the postseason, pitched fantastic. Clutch hitting and a hot Pablo Sandoval also contributed to the third World Series Championship in the last five years.
The offseason is well underway now, and while the Giants haven't seen too many changes to the team, there has been one major difference in the roster.
"The Panda" decided to leave San Francisco and join the Boston Red Sox. The Giants offered the kind of money he was looking for, but Sandoval wanted to join his buddies Hanley Ramirez and David Ortiz in the American League East.
The Giants filled his spot on the team last week by acquiring Casey McGehee who had one of the better seasons of his career in Miami last year hitting .287 with 76 RBI.
Sandoval's numbers in the regular season can be duplicated, they weren't that fantastic, but it will be hard to replace his production in the postseason.
Giants General Manager Brian Sabean has already brought back Peavy and Sergio Romo, but he did not resign Michael Morse.
What to expect in 2015:
The offseason is long from over. The Giants are expected to make a few more signings to bolster the pitching staff, and deal with a left field issue.
One of the possible solutions to the Giants left field problems would be to make Posey the everyday first baseman and move Brandon Belt out to left field.
Ryan Vogelsong is still a free agent. It's possible the Giants could resign him, but they need to figure out a way to solidify the starting rotation, because right now it's not deep.
Look for Tim Lincecum to finally make the permanent move to the bullpen at some point in 2015. His arm doesn't have the stamina to pitch for six innings every five days, but if he was out in the bullpen, he could ramp it up and give it everything he has for one or two innings.
Hopefully the Giants can break the trend of poor seasons in the odd years, but at this point, they need to improve the roster just a bit to return to a playoff team.